Ray Ison, Professor in Systems at the UK Open University since 1994, is a member of the Applied Systems Thinking in Practice Group. From 2008-15 he also developed and ran the Systemic Governance Research Program at Monash University, Melbourne. In this blog he reflects on contemporary issues from a systemic perspective.

Monday, August 27, 2012

I am grateful to David Ing and Nicolas Stampf for alerting
me to a useful update and overview on ‘The Limits to Growth’.As David says:

‘what was the message of Limits to Growth? A web video updating the work, in "current language" (e.g. "Human Ecological
Footprint" wasn't a phrase they used)'..... has been prepared by the Club of Rome, who developed the original research funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung.

An open Herrenhausen symposium is also planned to mark this important milestone. Entitled "Already Beyond – 40 Years Limits to Growth“ it will be held on November, 28 and 29, 2012 in Hanover, Germany. Scientists from all over the world are invited to participate. Registration is open until October 31st, 2012.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

William Pesek had a systemically illuminating article entitled 'Today's Chinese proverb: he who craves wealth joins the party' in yesterday's business section of The Saturday Age. His, possibly tongue in cheek, conclusion is that 'if the rich keep getting richer at the expense of the poor, China may actually need to go communist'. It is telling that the Gini coefficient for rural China was 0.3949 late last year, close to the 0.4 threshold that UN analysts suggest is the warning level for social unrest. He also claims that China 'hasn't devised a strategy to cut pollution' nor made its leaders more accountable. This is a useful update on reflections of my own posted in earlier blogs.